Melbourne Church, Derbyshire. 301

tindly point out the fituation of the Porticus, through which was the entrance [q]. We alfo learn by this, and indeed by other au- thors, that the fafhion of the churches of that age was formed from the Bafilictcr, or Courts of Juftice [j], in confequence of thofe places, (which were very well adapted for a congregation,) being ori- ginally made ufe of for this purpofe in the time of Conftantine the 1 the Great. We are alfo informed that the Porticos of thefe Ba- Jjltcts were WITHIN the building, and indeed precifely eorrefpond- ing with the Porticos of the church of Melbourne, and as muft be underftood from the relation of Bede, and other ancient writers [/]. [q~] The entrance into the Athenian Temples was through the Portico fPronaos, Anti-Temple, or Veft'ibule) ; feme of their temples had an entrance at both ends, when the back front was called the Pojlicus, and that entrance the Pojllcum. The plan of thofe temples which had entrances at both ends were faid to be AmphyproJJylos. Stuart's Athens, ch. ii. p. 9. [r] But upon the converfion of Conftant'me many of thefe (Bafilicse) were given to the church, and turned to another ufe for chriftian affemblies to meet in, as may be collected from that paflage in Aufonius, where fpeaking to the emperor Gratian, he tells him, ' The Bafilicae, which heretofore were wont to be filled with men of bufmefs, were now thronged with votaries praying for his fafety ; by which he muft needs mean, that the Roman halls, or courts, were turned into chriftian churches, and hence I conceive the name Bafilk# cafme to be a general name for churches in after ages- Bingham's Antiq. of X n . Gh s . B. viii. ch. i. p. 274. [j] Heathen temples were alfo converted into churches; and it was by advice of pope Gregory to Mellitus*, that for the better accommodation of the chriftians of thefe times, the heathenifti temples fhould not be demolimed, but converted into chriftian fervice. Hen. Huntingd. fol. 322. As his fucceffbr Boniface obtained of the emperor Phoca> to have the ^Pantheon at Rome transformed and dedicated to the honour of St. Alary and All Saints, to this day called Sanfta Maria Rotunda. Stavely's Hift. of Ch. in Eng. p. 70. [/] This feems to be implied alfo by the prophet Joel : " Let the priefts, the minif- " ters of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar" Joel, ch. ii. ver. 17. Mellitus confecr. Bp. of St. Paul's in the ti'me of K. Ethelbert. Palladio